A Streamlined Model

Rather than hire outside experts to put the procedures in place to fully exploit OpenView, Rockwell instead found a service provider that already had a streamlined monitoring and service delivery model in place that could act as an adjunct to the Rockwell IT staff.
Local MSP (management services provider) Digital-DNS Inc. had been pitching to the company for a while, Goodwin said, and came in with the most compelling proposal out of those submitted by larger vendors including Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc. and IBM.

"We had different vendors propose to monitor our systems and be a NOC for us," Goodwin said. "It just didnt feel right. I was looking for a business partner rather than someone that would just take my money."
Digital-DNS StressFree I/T Enterprise Monitoring Services provides 24-by-7 monitoring of customers critical network devices, servers and applications. It is intended to allow a clients IT staff to focus on more mission-critical functions.
Digital-DNS got the go-ahead to provide a simple proof-of-concept demonstration, which Goodwin said made it easy to see how well the service could perform.

After installing a SilverBack Technologies Inc. SilverStreak monitoring appliance on-site at Rockwell, Digital-DNS monitored six or seven devices for a month, "and we helped them pinpoint a major problem during that proof of concept. And that sold them," explained Al Gossett, president and CEO of Digital-DNS, also in Greenville.
The StressFree I/T monitoring service uses the SilverBack appliance as a service delivery platform for providing round-the-clock monitoring of critical devices chosen by the client.
The service also includes remediation of problems and a monthly report on the health of the clients systems, which can include potential problems spotted that require attention, according to Gossett.
The types of devices that Digital-DNS monitors for Rockwell range from Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 servers to Linux systems; VMware Inc.s VMware; Sun Microsystems Inc. Solaris servers; Cisco Systems Inc. Pix firewalls and Catalyst 6500 switches; VPN concentrators; Web proxy servers; and site-to-site VPN tunnels.
Digital-DNS Chief Technology Officer Bill Brown said the monthly report "highlights what we see in their entire network, performance-related issues, security vulnerabilities, and we have a recommendations section."
Each of Rockwells networking, Lotus Notes, Windows NT Server, Unix, security and database groups receives a specific report on devices Digital-DNS oversees.
Once the SilverBack monitoring appliance is installed and devices and applications to be monitored are added, both Digital-DNS and its clients create notification rules for the client and for Digital-DNS help desk, according to Gossett, and then escalation procedures are established.
"We know exactly what we do with certain situations, who to notify and what to notify," said Gossett.
In Rockwells case, its IT staff receives alerts and handles all break/fix work.
"We watch, too, and if we see something they miss, we notify them," said Brown. "After 5 [p.m.], we pick it up, and if there is a frame relay outage, we put the ticket in with their carrier. If its a server or device outage, we contact their on-call personnel. Were watching [the Rockwell network] from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. and on weekends."
Rockwell also shifted management of its Citrix Systems Inc. environment to the MSP, and Digital-DNS handles remediation for Rockwells frame relay network, which includes "hundreds of circuits" and extends from the United States to China and Mexico, according to Brown.
Goodwin said Digital-DNS has been a trusted partner and has become the first resource that Rockwell IT calls on when it needs help fixing a problem it cant handle alone.
"We had a virus that hit. I was able to talk to Bill Brown throughout the night on technical issues, and [about] pushing out patches. I was bouncing ideas off him as I dealt with my staff cleaning up the virus. Thats invaluable service right there," said Goodwin.
Although calculating the cost savings that Digital-DNS has enabled is difficult, Fowler estimated that it saved about $150,000 in the first year by being able to move staff around and by eliminating annual maintenance on its OpenView license.
It has also increased overall system uptime from somewhere in the 80 percent range to the "high 90s," said Fowler.
"We removed a third-shift operator position dedicated to watching systems, and weve begun looking at other ways to be able to move people around. Having Digital-DNS there gives me confidence that Ive got a qualified set of eyes always looking at my environment," said Goodwin.
But the benefits reportedly go far beyond that.
"Weve increased our uptime, and theres a huge cost of downtime for some systems," Fowler said. "When we can look at trending information and do something to prevent a problem, Im saving a lot of money there. We have a better and more cost-effective environment, and it contributes to our ability to operate at a low cost. And our environment is better. We have a higher level of uptime, and our people are less overworked. One of our teams is working on converting a mission-critical application to Linux. In the past, they would have spent a lot of time on maintaining OpenView. Now were about to complete this major transition to Linux."
Case file

Lessons learned Recognize internal resistance to change and go with the most efficient mode of operation as quickly as possible
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